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October 26, 2008

Book Review: Baseball Field Guide

Dan Formosa and Paul Hamburger are, according to their back cover bio, "design experts with many decades of award-winning work and an obsession with baseball between them".

Both of those skills are on display in this revised and updated edition of their "Baseball Field Guide" (Da Capo Press). The first edition was published in 2006.

Formosa and Hamburger have rewritten what they refer to as "the vague, misleading, confusing, inconsistent, and obscure" rules of baseball. They have recast the rule book in language that is easy to understand -- for both new fans and decades-long devotees -- with simple, yet highly informative, illustrations.

Here is one of the illustrations for interference:

Pages 64-65 -- Pitching Positions:

Along the way, you'll learn 12 ways a runner can be called out, 18 ways a batter can make an out, nine ways an error can be charged, and 21 instances that warrant a player's ejection.

Formosa and Hamburger have created a real gem. I can't think of a better book that serves an introduction to the sport and how it is played. I'll be referring to the Field Guide at least as often as I do to the actual rule book ... probably more.

[Earlier this year, a Perseus Books publicity person emailed me, asking if I wanted to review this book. In an odd coincidence, I had been admiring it in a book store the previous day.]

Very cool! Maybe this will answer some of those questions that I still (after over 40 years as a fan) have about some of the rather obscure rules and that even I am too embarrassed to ask about on JOS.

I still cannot tell when a pitcher has actually committed a balk. Maybe this book will help.

I can't always tell when runs and unearned or earned. It still seems like some of it is a judgment call, although it should not be that way. (I'm all set on the infield fly rule though!)

I have many questions about why some plays that look like errors are not scored that way and why others that look like hits are scored as errors.

That is not covered in the rules. It's up to the opinion of each official scorer. Which is why it seems so arbitrary -- and why fielding percentage sucks (one of the many reasons it sucks).

Definitely see if it is in your book store. There are other illustrations at the link I posted in the post. I love the clean, cool look of the pages. It also might have been a good idea to include the text of the actual rule book, then explain it as you read through it.

Amy said... Very cool! Maybe this will answer some of those questions that I still (after over 40 years as a fan) have about some of the rather obscure rules and that even I am too embarrassed to ask about on JOS.

Amy ask away, we all think we know more than the next guy or gal anyway and are always happy to spew info to show off the knowledge most people can care less about...

I can't always tell when runs and unearned or earned. It still seems like some of it is a judgment call, although it should not be that way.

Rule 10.18 is pretty explicit that the scorer's judgment should be taken into account when charging earned runs. See, e.g., 10.18(d):

(d) No run shall be earned when the runner's advance is aided by an error, a passed ball, or defensive interference or obstruction, if the scorer judges that the run would not have scored without the aid of such misplay.

The phrase "benefit of the doubt" also appears twice. You basically have to stick with general principles like it's unearned when the runner gets on base because of a fielding error or after the inning should've ended because of an error.

The really goofy examples happen under 10.18(e) ("An error by a pitcher is treated exactly the same as an error by any other fielder in computing earned runs"). Timlin's used that rule to depress his ERA -- when a pitcher commits his own throwing error to first with two outs, he can give up a dozen runs afterwards and they're all unearned.

The Phillies really stood out all postseason. One of my favorite postseason moments overall was Brett Myer's 9-pitch walk where every ball taken and every foul ball hit, the crowd erupted. Then Rollins gets a four-pitch walk and Victorino hits a grand slam. NLDS G2.

Amazing how much of a whirlwind this next week and a half will be. Baseball's coming to a close (meh.), we enter November, the clocks get changed back to standard time (a big YUCK for that one), then Election Day.

If you can somehow get to Hamels and win Game 5, they go back to the Trop and have James Shields on the mound against Brett Myers, who they beat in Game 2. Then if they win that, it's Game 7 against Jamie Moyer. Anything could happen.

Tonight the Phillies should just focus on winning the game because it could get very interesting if they need to send this one back to the Trop.

Hard to believe, with all the rain. It's not like they didn't know it was going to rain. Game should never have been started. How about this then, eh? This game will most likely not finish tonight, and tomorrow's weather looks to be lousy. Although I think the storm will have passed by evening. But there could be a situation where Game 5 would finish (a bullpen game, which means a fresh David Price and a Philly's bullpen) on the day that Game 6 should have been played in Tampa.

Hard to fault Selig for starting the game, thinking about it at 2:40 on Tuesday afternoon. He was given bad weather intelligence. He was told there would only be a tenth of an inch of rain, which is a playable amount, between 8 and midnight.

The radar showed the rain blossoming over Philadelphia, rather than moving in like it normally would with a low pressure system. Almost like a popcorn thunderstorm in the summer, only a much larger area.

Having said that, it's amazing how playoff schedules have become so set-in-stone and inflexible. But it's all driven by ratings, and apparently 8:22 PM is the time most people in the country are going to tune in to watch the game. They may not be awake for the whole thing, but just as long as their TV is on and tuned to FOX, all is well.

By the way, there is a regular season precedent for suspending a game after the 5th inning with the game NOT being tied.

June 28, 2007, the Yankees and Orioles were suspended in the top of the EIGHTH inning, after the Yankees, who had been down by two runs, took a 2-run lead, 8-6. They couldn't even wait until the half-inning was concluded to cover the field. The game was suspended with 2 out and Derek Jeter on second base.

The game was resumed almost a month later - July 27th, and the Yankees held on to win 8-7.

If that game gets suspended, there's NO way, no matter what the rulebook states, a World Series game would end prematurely if it wasn't tied. There would need to be a big deficit, at least 10 runs I would think, to justify the game ending early. Especially a clinching game.